DS 679 .05 Copy 1 n f<,ca iu u^pe LIBERTY TRACTS. No. I. THE CHICAGO LIBERTY MEETING HELD AT CENTRE MU8IG HULL APRIL 30. li Lincoln, Speech of October ib, 1854- "Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. "If this be treason, make the most of rr "-Patrick Henry. PUBLISHED BY CENTRAL ANTI=IHPERIALIST LEAGUE TACOMA BUILDING, CHICAGO 1899 "5* "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Con- stitution of the United States of America. "—Preamble. "All persons born or naturalized in the United Slates, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside . "— .Fourteenth Amendment. "It toas in the oath I took that I tvould, to the best of my ability, pre- serve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States. * * * Nor was it my vieio that 1 might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using that poiver. * * * / did understand * * * that m,y oath imposed upon me the duty of preserving, to the best of my ability, by every indispensable means, that government, that nation, of ivhich the Consti- tution was the organic law." — Lincoln. "The late M. Guizot once askejl me how long I thought our republic would endure? I replied: 'So long as the ideas of the men who founded it continue dominant,' and he assented. "—Lowell. A FORMER INSTANCE, A ( D. 1565. "He [Menendez] knezv, he said, nothing of greater moment to his Majesty than the conquest and settlement of Florida. The climate tvas healthful and the soil fertile, and, worldly advantages aside, it was peopled by a race sunk in the thickest shades of infidelity. 'Such grief,' 1 he pur- sued, 'seizes me. when I behold this multitude of wretched Indians, that I should choose the conquest and settling of Florida above all commands, offices, and dignities which your Majesty might bestow. ' "— Parkman's Works, vol. i, p. 99. "lam here to plant the Gospel. If you [French heretics'] will give up your arms and banners and place yourselves at my mercy, you may do so, and I will act toward you as God shall give me grace. Do as you will, for other than this you can have neither truce nor friendship 'with me."— Id. p. 136. "May the Lord deliver us from all cant. May the Lord, whatever else He do or forbear, teach us to look facts honestly in the face, and to beware (with a kind of shudder) of smearing them all over with our despicable and damnable palaver." — Thomas Carlyle. "In vain we call old notions fudge, And bend our conscience to our dealing; The ten commandments will not budge, And stealing will continue stealing. ,, ~ Lowell. INDEX, PLATFORM, Central Anti-Imperialist League, 4 THE CALL, 5 THE ORGANIZATION OF MEETING, - - 6 OPENING ADDRESS, Chairman President Henry Wape Rogers, 7 WHY WE PROTEST, Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, 11 THE PHILIPPINE WAR, Prof. J. Lawrence Laughlln, 14 LIBERTY OR DESPOTISM, Edwin Burritt Smith, 23 DEMOCRACY OR TYRANNY, Sigmund ZeislER, 29 DEMOCRACY OR MILIT A RISM, Miss Jane Addams 35 REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE, Bishop J. R. Spalding, 40 REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS, Prop. Wm. Gardner Hale, 48 THE RESOLUTIONS, .•-.-.. 50 PLATFORM. The frank expression of honest convictions upon great questions of public policy is vital to the health and even to the preservation of representative government. Such expression is, therefore, the sacred duty of American citizens. We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been our glory to be free. We regret that it is now necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled . to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We still main- tain that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We insist that the forcible sub- jugation of a purchased people is "criminal aggression" and open disloyalty to the distinctive principles of our govern- ment. We honor our soldiers and sailors in the Philippine islands for their unquestioned bravery; and we mourn with the whole nation for the American lives that have been sacrificed. Their duty was obedience to orders; our duty is diligent inquiry and fearless protest. We hold that our government created the conditions which have brought about the sacrifice. We earnestly condemn the policy of the present national administration in the Philippines. It is the spirit of '76 that our government is striving to extinguish in those islands; we denounce the attempt and demand its aban- donment. We deplore and resent the slaughter of the Filipinos as a needless horror, a deep dishonor to our nation. We protest against the extension of American empire by Spanish methods, and demand the immediate cessation of the war against liberty, begun by Spain and continued by us. We believe that a foolish pride is the chief obstacle to a speedy settlement of all difficulties. As Mr. Glad- stone said to England, "We are strong enough * * * to cast aside all considerations of false shame * * * walking in the plain and simple ways of right and justice." Our government should at once announce to the Filipinos its purpose to grant them under proper guarantees of order the independence for which they have so long fought, and) should seek by diplomatic methods to secure this inde- pendence by the common consent of nations. It is today as true of the Filipinos as it was a year ago of the Cubans that they "are and of right ought to be free and inde- pendent." THE CALL. The undersigned call upon all lovers of liberty and justice io attend a public meeting to protest against American impe- rialism, and especially against the attempt of the United States to subjugate by force the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands: Henry Wade Rogers. H. E. Von Hoist. A. C. McClurg. Jane Addams. Murray F. Tuley. H. W. Thomas. R. A. White. _E. F. Davis. W. K. Ackerman. Francis H. Peabody. W. M. Slater. Sigmund Zeisler. J. J. Glessner. Jenkin Lloyd Jones. C L. Hutchinson. Edwin Burritt Smith. Graham Taylor. Howard Leslie Smith. Andrew McLeish. Leroy D. Thoman. George L. Paddock. Thomas Moran. W. H. Barnum. William C. Ewing. S. P. McConnell. Q. M. Eckels. Otto Gresham. I. K. Boyesen. August Blum. H. A. Gradner. F. W. Gookin. John A. King. Thomas M. Hoyne. F. H. McCulloch. Edward O. Brown. William G. Hale. more. We have become believers in destiny and des- tiny knows nothing of wisdom and goodness — it is nature's fatal sway, pitiless, blind, destroying, to rise above which has been the ceaseless effort of all heroes, saints and sages by which the race has been blessed and ennobled. If it is our destiny to become an empire it is not our destiny to endure as a republic. Empire and im- perialism are associated with kingly and arbitrary rule, with militarism and conquest. Was not the Ro- man empire built on the ruins of the republic? Was. it not made possible by the general loss of virtue and patriotism, by the luxury and corruption which the stolen wealth of a hundred cities had spread through Rome? It is only when the inner sources of life run. low that men rush madly to gain possession of exter- nal things. When the power of faith and hope and love is lost the animal in man's breast awakes and cries for blood or plunges into the slough of sensuality. When the real good of life escapes us money and what money buys seem to be all that is left. Then men become cowards, liars and thieves. They cringe and fawn and palter. They worship success. They call evil good and good evil. They have no convic- tions which are not lucrative, no opinions which are not profitable. Then all things are for sale, then dem- agogues are heroes, then opportunities for plunder are welcome, then the best policy is that which wins most votes and most money. But we are told that imperialism has proved a blessing to Great Britain. In this matter there is no parity between England and the United States. Again and again England has been conquered by Romans, Saxon, Angle, Dane and Norman. As her population increased she became less and less able to feed her people without drawing her supplies from other coun- tries, and to-day if she could be blockaded for six months she would starve. She is compelled, there- fore, to have a navy as strong almost as that of all the other nations, and this has led her to make conquest after conquest until her empire encircles the earth. But these widely scattered dominions, though possi- 44 bly necessary for her existence as a first-class poweiv are for her a cause of weakness. Let her colonies but become dissatisfied and they will fall from her as- easily as the ripe fruit falls from the bough. She gov- erns them wisely, because only in this way can she govern them at all. It is hardly possible for an. American to speak of England and not to feel grate- ful thoughts and kindly sentiments stir within his breast. To her largely we owe our liberties ; to her our language ; to her Shakespeare, Milton and Words- worth ; to her Bacon and Ruskin and Newman. Even, in the war of independence our greatest men still re- tained a kind of affection for her, as among her states- men our cause found some of its ablest and most elo- quent advocates. And now that more than a cen- tury has elapsed we can easily forgive and forget the wrongs she did us, especially since they stirred us- to assert and maintain our independence. Neverthe- less, the more we hold aloof from England the better shall it be for America. She has not an ally in the world, and there is probably not a nation in the world which would trust her as an ally. She has never loved us from the days in which she oppressed the colonies to the dark days when by aiding the confederacy she sought to make the disruption of the union perma- nent. She does not love us now. We are the most dreaded rival she has, because we threaten her su- premacy in what is nearest and dearest to her — her finances. She is confronted by difficulties and dan- gers of various kinds from which we are free. An alliance with her would involve us in the difficulties and dangers by which she is confronted and from which we are free. We need neither her advice nor her assistance. The praises which she now bestows on us, were they sincere, would be superfluous, but since they are given with the design of drawing us- into an imperialistic policy and troublesome entangle- ments they are insidious and insulting. Our wisest, statesmen have always been opposed to militarism as. a menace to our liberties. We want nothing more than the nucleus of an army, nothing which shall serve as- a means of conquest at home or abroad ; and, for my own part, I think a powerful navy a danger rather than a protection. So long as we are content to de- 45 v r ote ourselves to the tasks which God has set us we can have nothing to fear, even from a coalition of the powers of Europe, were such a thing possible.' We do not need a large standing army or a great navy either for conquest or self-defense. They are not necessary, as they would be dangerous to our peace and liberty. There was a time in our history when the general government seemed to be too weak and the states too strong. That condition of things passed away with the close of our civil war, when the executive seemed to acquire a new quality which clothed him with almost dictatorial power. It did not seem impossible to build a military despotism on American institutions. With ourselves, as in the rest of the civilized world, there is a drift toward socialism. We must face the great problems thus raised with faith in our political principles and with confidence in the good sense and honesty of the people. To seek refuge in the intervention of a standing army, under the command of a quasi-dictator or emperor, is to enter in the way of anarchy and ruin. On many sides there is evidence of moral decadence. Religion is los- ing its hold on the masses, respect for those who fill positions of authority is diminishing, the rights of property are becoming less sacred, the marriage tie is loosening, greed is increasing, capital becoming more unscrupulous. The virtue of thrift, moderation and forethought are less considered. We neither draw wisdom and inspiration from the past nor look to the future, but live like thoughtless children in the pres- ent. The distrust of the people of the men they elect to office is at once discouraging and injurious to pub- lic morality. Human life is taken on slight provoca- tion and outrages which blacken our fair name are committed by mobs which seem to have lost all sense of humanity. In that which essentially constitutes education — the development of science, the formation of characters — our schools seem in a large measure to have failed. It is, of course, possible to take a differ- ent and brighter view of our condition by emphasizing our wealth, our national progress, our growth in num- bers, our enlightenment, our enterprise ; but a jvise man gives little heed to that in which he succeeds, that he may better study wherein he fails. Why 46 should we turn from wkat is unpleasant if by consid- ering it we may learn useful lessons? If we but have the courage to look steadfastly and to see things as they are we shall easily see that our true work lies here, and not thousands of miles away. We are the foremost bearers of the most precious treasure of the races. In the success of the experiment which we are making the hopes of all noble and generous souls for a higker life of mankind are centered. If we fail, the world fails ; if we succeed, we shall do more; for the good of all men than if we conquered all the islands and continents. Our mission is to show that popular government on a vast scale is compatable with the best culture, the purest religion, the highest jus- tice, and that it can permanently endure. In -com- parison with this what would be a thousand groups of Philippines? What the most brilliant career of imperial pomp and glory? When the American people resolved not to hold, what they never intended to take possession of they will have little difficulty in finding a solution of this Philippine difficulty. Above all, let them not be misled by vanity; let them not harken to the siren voice of English flattery ; let them not stop to think what other nations shall say, but let them, as becomes a great, a free and enlightened people, be self-directed, holding in view only such aims and ends as are wise and just and conducive to the permanent welfare and. highest interest of the republic. 47 REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLU- TIONS. Remarks of Prof. William Gardner Hale, Chair- man: I hold in my hands the resolutions of the commit- tee. Before I present them, however, I beg your per- mission to say, very briefly, why I have welcomed this service, and why I believe it to be our duty to pass the resolutions. Two grave mistakes, fatal alik? to the Filipinos and ;to us, have been made in the dealings of this nation with its new proteges. The earliest was committed by our chief magistrate, when, at the critical moment of his first official utterance to the people we had set free from Spanish tyranny, he offered them "good and stable government" with one hand, and with the other exacted unconditional obedience. The second, like unto it, was committed by our commanding general, when he refused even to listen to the overtures of the natural leader of the Filipinos, whom we ourselves had carried to Luzon, on an American battleship, to help us against the common enemy. "Submission or death," said Spain to Cuba, and plunged us, a year ago, into a war for liberty and humanity. The de- struction of the Spanish fleet and the capture of Ma- nila "have practically effected the conquest of the Philippine islands." . . . "As a result of the vic- tories of American arms the future control, disposi- tion and government of the Philippine islands are ceded to the United States," said President McKin- ley to the Filipinos.* "Submission or death," said Otis, when the inevitable war followed. These two blunders, which the American people are even now beginning to recognize, and of which our children will sometime think with shame and wonder, our ad- ministration is engaged in burying under military glory, with "the strong arm of authority," killing ^Proclamation of January 5, 1899. 48 thousands of Filipinos, at the cost of the lives of hun- dreds of brave American soldiers, who did not need to die to prove either American courage of American force. Not one syllable of concilliation has thus far been uttered. The President's ominous word, "con- quest" — a word probably never, before spoken in any American document of state — has been fitly and stead- ily backed by the general's words, "unconditional sur- render." But a third mistake, fellow-citizens, and no light one, lies at the door of us who are gathered here today, and at the doors of vast numbers of men and women throughout the country, who either did not see, in that fate-bearing proclamation of January 5th, the com- plete subversion of the fundamental principles of this proud Republic, and the inevitable seeds of a degrad- ing war with a people struggling, just as the Cubans had struggled, to be free, or who, so seeing, failed to raise their voices in instant protest and warning. And this duty of open speech, which should have been clear to us then, becomes clearer every day, when so many of the men of the newspaper, the self-appointed rep- resentatives of the public conscience and intelligence, dare even to apply the name of "traitor" to any one that differs from a magistrate clothed by our own votes with a little brief authority, and who confessedly himself desires to be guided by that very public opin- ion which they would suppress. It is time that we spoke; and we of Chicago, who, in the fulfillment of this duty, are so far behind our fellow-citizens of many parts of the country, should not let another sun g*o down upon our silence. Your committee, then, offers to you these resolutions, in which, as it believes, are embodied the sentiments that actuate you who are gathered here .today, and the principles which, until now, every American child has breathed in with his native air. 49 THE RESOLUTIONS.* The frank expression of honest convictions upon great questions of public policy is vital to the health and even to the preservation of representative gov- ernment. Such expression is, therefore, the sacred duty of American citizens. We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been our glory to be free. We re- gret that it is now necessary in the land of Washing- ton and Lincoln to reaffirm that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty and the pur- suit of happiness. W 7 e still maintain that govern- ments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We insist that the forcible subjugation of a purchased people is "criminal aggression" and open disloyalty to the distinctive principles of our gov- ernment. We honor our soldiers and sailors in the Philip- pine islands for their unquestioned bravery and we mourn with the whole nation for the American lives that have been sacrificed. Their duty was obedience to orders ; our duty is diligent inquiry and fearless protest. We hold that our government created the conditions which have brought about the sacrifice. We earnestly condemn the policy of the present na- tional administration in the Philippines. It is the spirit of '76 that our government is striving to extin- guish in those islands ; we denounce the attempt and demand its abandonment. We deplore and resent the slaughter of the Filipinos as a needless horror, a deep dishonor to our nation. We protest against the extension of American em- pire by Spanish methods and demand the immediate cessation of the war against liberty begun by Spain and continued by us. We believe that a foolish pride is the chief obstacle to a speedy settlement of all diffi- culties. As Mr. Gladstone said to England, "We are ♦The great audience adopted these resolutions by a rising vote, but four voting in the negative. 50 strong enough * * * to cast aside all consider- ations of false shame * * * walking in the plain and simple ways of right and justice." Our govern- ment should at once announce to the Filipinos its purpose to grant thenT under proper guarantees of order the independence for which they have so long fought, and should seek by diplomatic methods to secure this independence by the common consent of nations. It is today as true of the Filipinos as it was a year ago of the Cubans that they "are and of right ought to be free and independent." 51 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 027 531 479 1